Tornados and high winds. This is one of the most common of the natural disasters to strike the continental United States. The South and Southwest have been “Tornado Alley” for years, but the occurrence and the wrath of these windstorms have been increasing. Therefore, the odds of more of us becoming victims of a devastating windstorm or tornado, are increasing.

Tornados that occur in cities and more populated suburban or rural areas, always affect homes and other structures. If your roof is ripped off, or your windows blown out, your home and your lives are jeopardy. Electrical wires to your home and in the areas around your home, are affected, and usually blown down, cutting off power to your home and large areas around your home.

The water supply is also affected by the fierce winds. Water treatment plants can be contaminated therefore city water supplies are not drinkable, and houses with wells cannot pump.

Flooding. In areas close to water, be it coastal or along lakes and rivers, tornados and high winds can cause flooding. Heavy, hurricane-type rains and heavy snow melt can also cause flooding. Flood waters know no boundaries and they will invade your home bringing debris, bacteria, and water creatures, leaving behind mud, and creating mold on most of the surfaces where it lingers. Again, your home becomes uninhabitable, and you will need to seek shelter somewhere safe.

So many disasters happen so quickly that we are unable to react properly and rationally. To avoid being caught unaware, you need to make sensible and reasonable preparations. Primary, short-term precautions include shelter, food, and water. If you are prepared to handle these primary needs, then you should be able to ride-out the short-term affects of a tornado or flood.

Shelter. Do you have a location that can ride-out a tornado or is safe from a flood? Basements, root cellars, and bomb shelters can fit the bill, if they are located out of the disaster flood plain. Most of us don’t have one of these options, so knowing where your community’s disaster shelter is located, is the next choice. If one does not exist in your area, then you need to know where a shelter or safe place is located, and several routes on how to get there in the event of flooding or downed trees or electrical wires.

Many Floridian travel north when hurricanes threaten. They go to relatives or hotels located in areas safe from the storms. And they go before the roads become too congested or impassable.

Food and Water. Power outages seem to become more frequent and increased demand, and changing weather conditions, but a strain on our electrical grid. So, it helps to have several days of non-perishable foods safely stored in your home. You will also need a way to open and prepare your food. You will need non-electric can and bottle openers, and a way to prepare and possibly heat that food, assuming you have no power. A grill or camping stove will work, but these implements are not designed to be used inside. They put off harmful gases that vent away when you are outside, but can build-up and cause harm or even death, if used inside.

Humans cannot live without water beyond about 3 days. This varies according to the person’s body, nutritional needs, and age. Lack of water can cause irrational thinking, fainting, and will eventually cause your organs to shut down, and death. Stay hydrated, especially in a disastrous situation which increases your stress, anxiety, and causes you to breathe heavier and use more oxygen.

Store sealed gallons or larger containers of water in a safe, dry space. By safe, we mean a place where if a tornado or hurricane blew through your house, you want your family to survive, of course, and the food and water.